People to People (affordable home care for low-income seniors and the disabled): $8,200

Trauma Intervention Programs of San Diego County: $8,000

Fallbrook Hospital Auxiliary: $7,500

Save Our Children’s Eyes Program: $6,600

Cal State University San Marcos — School of Nursing: $5,000

North County Disabled Services (recreational and social activities): $5,000

The Fallbrook Healthcare District awarded its largest fiscal year grant total to 19 of 23 applicants in the greater Fallbrook area.

Recently, $506,660 went to nonprofit organizations, support programs and services to benefit the health and well-being of residents in Fallbrook, Bonsall, De Luz and Rainbow.

The grants are meant to assist nonprofits, not to fully fund them, said Gordon Tinker, health care district director. It’s a sign of the times that the demand for grant funding has grown.

“It’s been sad to see, because some nonprofits have been very diligent in their pursuit of other funding, but those other resources are tapping out,” said Vi Dupre, health care district administrator.

The Fallbrook Healthcare District board of directors requested the original amounts of some grant applications be trimmed. It wasn’t based on the quality of the program, Dupre said, but rather a matter of economics.

“When the board decided it had to cut funding, each of those grant applicants had to redo their budget in order to prove to us that they could, in fact, provide their program at the discounted dollar amount,” Dupre said. “And they all did it.”

Don Luallin, executive director of the Fallbrook Food Pantry, said the grant funding covers one-third of his budget.

“The last two years have been stressful,” Luallin said. “A lot of the grants we used to get we aren’t getting anymore, and we need help.”

For the first half of 2010, the Fallbrook Food Pantry provided food to 12,103 families.

The Fallbrook Healthcare District receives its funding from the redistribution of property taxes.

Since 2000, it has issued 162 grants and supported 38 agencies and programs, and has distributed more than $4 million ﻿to the community.

“Some of these nonprofits wouldn’t survive without these grants,” Tinker said.